Stale contributor still shown on repository homepage after history rewrite

[soyeong0115]

🏷️ Discussion Type

Bug

Body

Hi,

I'm experiencing an issue with the Contributors section of my repository.

Repository:
https://github.com/100-hours-a-week/KTB4-11th-FE

The Insights > Contributors page is already correct and no longer shows claude.

However, the Contributors section on the repository homepage still shows claude.

The commit history was rewritten more than two weeks ago, and the contributor is no longer present in the repository history.

I also submitted a GitHub Support ticket regarding this issue, but the ticket was closed because my current support options are limited to self-service resources.

Ticket: #4799664

Since it has already been more than two weeks, could someone from GitHub please help refresh or reindex the repository contributor statistics?

Thank you.

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[BradPerbs]

Same symptom as #208778, also a leftover co-author account. The homepage sidebar is cached separately from Insights and /contributors, and old refs/pull/* can still point at the rewritten commits. You can't delete those refs yourself, and another force-push won't help. Support has to purge the PR refs and cached views (the same process as removing sensitive data). When you ask, list the old SHAs and PR numbers and point out that /repos/OWNER/REPO/contributors is already correct. That shows your reachable history is clean.

[Sagargupta16]

Nothing is left to reindex on the Git side, and there is a self-service fix: change the default branch away and back.

What I checked on your repository, all from public data:

• All 34 branches (305 unique commits): no commit authored by claude and no Co-Authored-By: Claude trailer anywhere.
• All 42 pull requests (299 commits GitHub still keeps under refs/pull/*): none there either.
• GET /repos/100-hours-a-week/KTB4-11th-FE/contributors already returns 3 people, matching Insights > Contributors.
• The homepage block reads a separate cached summary, https://github.com/100-hours-a-week/KTB4-11th-FE/_sidebar, and that one still answers "contributorCount":4 with claude in the list.

Changing the default branch is what flushes that cache. #208456 had the same symptom with the same claude account on 2026-09-21; the switch fixed it within the hour, and that repository's sidebar shows 3 today. Several people in #197389 report the same after renaming the default branch and back, including one who had waited a month.

You already have main next to dev, so no temporary branch is needed:

1. Settings > General > Default branch: click the switch icon, pick main, Update, confirm.
2. Once it has saved, switch back to dev the same way.
3. Wait a few minutes and reload the repository homepage.

New pull requests default to whatever the default branch is at that moment, so pick a quiet minute. You need admin on the repository.

The docs say contributor displays refresh in about 24 hours after a rewrite and to contact Support after that. Your history starts on 2026-09-15, so the cache has been stale for about two weeks; with the ticket closed, the switch is the practical route.